Combined feed (RSS)Arizona State aftermath
By Jonathan Okanes
Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 9:37 pm in Last game tidbits.
When is the last time you saw Cal’s defense that dominant? That had to have been one of the best performances by Cal’s defense in a while. Yes, Arizona State clearly was overrated to begin the season, but the Sun Devils still are probably an upper echelon Pac-10 tea, and their offense was simply no match for the Bears’ defense.
The 3-4 base scheme has turned out to be a great fit for Cal. The Bears are doing many good things out of it, notably stopping the run and putting pressure on the quarterback. Cal’s active defensive line isn’t just eating up space against the run — it’s making plays. Defensive end Cameron Jordan tied for the team lead with eight tackles Saturday.
Speaking of Jordan, Saturday demonstrated why this guy could be an absolute star someday. In addition to his eight tackles, he had two sacks and a forced fumble. Not only does it appear there will be no dropoff with Rulon Davis sidelined, Jordan might actually provide an upgrade.
If there was a question about the defense going into the season, it was the secondary. Sure, you can count on Syd’Quan Thompson to be steady, but there was uncertainty everywhere else. After watching Saturday’s game, it looks like the Bears can field one of the best cornerback tandems in the Pac-10. Thompson continued his All-Pac-10 caliber season while Darian Hagan had his second strong performance — he tied Jordan for the tackle lead and also recovered a fumble. Hagan and Thompson are getting the job done in both pass defense and run defense.
Was I surprised Jeff Tedford went with Nate Longshore over Kevin Riley? A little. The more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe there was something to the theory that the coach was trying to fire up the player. But although Longshore wasn’t spectacular, it’s hard to argue with the move. Tedford said he made the change to get off to a better start, and the Bears scored on their first two possessions and led 17-0 early on. Yes, Longshore had the one bad pick, but he also was effiicient on the scoring drives and threw three touchdown passes.
I mentioned it earlier, but Tedford’s explanation for the more conservative playcalling in the second half was because the Bears kept getting pinned back in poor field position. He said he didn’t want to take any risks; rather he wanted to see if they could methodically register first downs to control the pace. Truth be told, teh way the defense was playing, it didn’t make a difference. And that probably made it easier not to take more shots down the field or go for a big play.
Punter Bryan Anger looked like he did in the opener against Michigan State. He boomed all of his punts, including his incredible 72-yarder. And more good news for special teams — kicker Giorgio Tavecchio kicked the ball past the 10-yard line four out of five times.
And that was a pretty big win for the Bears. If ASU truly is one of the other upper echelon teams in the conference, Cal has now taken care of business with the Sun Devils. Taking a look at the Pac-10 standings right now, Cal and Arizona are tied for first place with 2-0 records. Of course, Cal’s next game is against Wildcats. While the Bears are enjoying their bye this weekend, Arizona will be visiting Stanford. So if the Cardinal can pull off the upset, Cal will enter the Arizona game all alone in first place.
Many of you may have seen the latest rankings released today. The Bears are inching near a return to the Associated Press top 25. They received 80 votes to place 29th. Cal actually made it back into the USA Today top 25, rounding out the rankings at No. 25.
Something to look for: The conference player of the week awards are named Monday. You have to think Jordan is a leading candidate for the defensive honors. I’ll post it as soon as I get the winners.
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]
bangblogadmin
cpmyers
asoglin
jbecker
jstiglich
jheater
jfaraudo
jokanes
mlefkow
October 5th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
How about converting third down and short yardage by giving the ball to the big fullback Will T? We underutilize him. As much as I like Shane and even Jahvid, they are both too small to move the pile.
The same thought applies to go to goal situations. The inability to score a TD on the first drive with three incomplete passes reminds me of what caused us to lose several past games. Gotta score TDs. We will fall behind quickly if we trade 3s for an opponent’s 7s.
The failure to convert third downs or score TDs will haunt us against stronger opponents.
Our defense saved us against ASU. Our offense really only yielded us 277 total yards. Our time of possession for the second half was only about 11 minutes vs. almost 19 minutes for ASU. That’s putting too much pressure and work on our defense.
Go Bears!
October 6th, 2008 at 12:16 am
If you saw the ASU game, you probably “noticed” (I’m being nice here) the penalty called for “Leaping” on an ASU field goal attempt and the non-call on their second touchdown when it appeared that ASU players pushed the ball carrier into the end zone.
I downloaded a pdf of the College Football Rules and Interpretations from ncaapublications.com (just google it to get the complete address) and here are the rules.
You make the call.
Rule 9-1-2 n:
No defensive player, in an attempt to gain an advantage, may step, jump
or stand on an opponent. No defensive player who runs forward from
beyond the neutral zone and leaps from beyond the neutral zone in an
obvious attempt to block a field goal or try may land on any player(s).
It is not a foul if the leaping player was aligned in a stationary position
within one yard of the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped.
Rule 9-3-2 a
The runner shall not grasp a teammate; and no other player of his
team shall grasp, push, lift or charge into him to assist him in forward
progress.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:37 am
I totally agree Boalt, USE Will T MORE!!! Nuf said.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:23 am
I totally agree on using Will T. more. He’s had some nice catches, but only one run that I recall (against Maryland).
October 6th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Jordan was very impressive. What are the chances we’ll get to see a DE tandem of both Jordan AND Rulon Davis this season? When are we to expect to get Davis back…by UCLA or Oregon perhaps? Sure would be nice.
I think teams are really keying on our run in situations like we had in the 2nd half when everyone knows that Tedford is going to go conservative with the lead. That makes it a lot easier to defend us when you have a very good sense of what’s coming. I think that’s why we did so little after getting our 3rd TD early on in the 2nd half.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:31 am
BoaltBlue, a different way to look at things would be to say the Bears are a very solid defensive team and if the offense doesn’t blow it they should win. How about changing the mindset? The Bears have always been: great offense, defense just has to give up 30 points or less and we’ll be ok. A win counts the same if your defense is excellent and the offense not too bad. I’ll take a 14-3 win over Zona.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Robert, excellent point, and I agree completely. It’s really this simple; if our defense can hold the opponent to fewer points than our offense scores, we win! Sounds too simple, but when you look at the very good teams, they win with good defense and solid offense. Right now, I would say we have a good defense and a solid offense, which is borderline great offense with the addition of Best. 28+ points should be enough to win just about any game, and in the past we’ve had to score 30+ to win. So, if our defense hold our opponents to less than 20 points, I am very confident that our offense can score more than 20 points against just about anyone. I like our chances!!!
Go Bears!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:50 am
“Tedford said he made the change to get off to a better start, and the Bears scored on their first two possessions and led 17-0 early on.”
The real reason we didn’t get off to a good start against CSU was due to the poor play of our RBs (two fumbles on the first few drives), and not the QB Kevin Riley. Kevin Riley did everything he could in the start of the CSU game to get the team off to a fast start. Perhaps the text above is an reporter’s interpretation of Tedford’s words, however, it is this type of logic that gets the fans upset since it isn’t representative of the facts.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Robert beat me to the punch today. I thought I’d never see the day when the bears would (or could) be a defense and field position team! Offense is still under-performing, luckily football games can be won with excellence in 2 out of the 3 phases of the game.
now….how about a show of hands for those folks that thought gregory couldn’t do the job?
October 6th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Please ask Tedford why he didn’t let Slocum have any carries in relief of Vereen.
October 6th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Well if you remember the “Hit Squad” from a few years back, those teams were characterized by great defense, and field position battles.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I missed the outstanding performance by Nate Longshore. The QB I saw was the same Nate as last year, inconsistent and inaccurate whenever he moves his feet. An inexplicable interception thrown gently toward opposing lineman. The only Cal score of the second half was a 30 yard drive. Had Nate had been consistently accurate, the Bears win in a rout. But he wasn’t, and ASU was able to load up to stop the run, just like every team did after Nate came back last year. As it was, the killer mistake, the fumbled kickoff return when ASU pulled to within 10, rolled out of bounds. Phew. With this offense, the defense MUST dominate. Can they keep it up against tougher competition?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Calgator, Davis is out at least six weeks, maybe more. That means the earlier he could come back would be the Oregon State game. I wouldn’t count on Davis contributing too much more this season.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Jon,
What I also noticed about the rankings is Michigan St. ahead of Cal. Both have 1 loss, and Cal’s schedule has easily been at least the equal of the Spartans, but in reality even stronger. How does this happen when they just played 4 weeks ago? To me, this kind of voting ignorance is the biggest of many hurdles that doom the BCS system.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Mike,
The bottom line is that Cal’s loss to Maryland is more galling to the voters than MSU’s loss to Cal, and that’s why the Spartans are ahead in the polls. Maryland didn’t help Cal’s position when they took a 31-0 drubbing to lowly Virginia last Saturday. That Maryland loss is going to haunt Cal all season and most likely will prevent the team from getting to a bowl they feel like they deserve.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Steve,
I understand your point but in a situation where each team has one loss and a similar schedule, then the head to head has to outweigh any loss to Maryland. If Cal had more losses than Michigan St. than I could understand it, but not when each has one. In that case head to head has to outweigh anything else. Part of me thinks that many of the voters have simply forgotten Cal beat Michigan St. Look at Maryland, until last week they should have been ranked ahead of Cal. Each had a loss and Maryland won the head to head. But now that Maryland has a second loss, than I feel you can rank Cal ahead of them. I realize this all will tend to work out in the end, but for now it’s simply an incorrect call to rank the Spartans higher. I’m not sure Cal should be ranked (probably 20-25 is correct) but you could argue against it too–However, the Bears should be above Michigan St.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Mike:
The difference is that M.S. currently a 5-1, even they lost to Cal. They have more wins.
The ranking right now doesn’t mean anything. What the out comes at end really counts.
CAL may move up to top 10, if they can remain unbeaten from now on, which means 11-1, Well hopeful, but, tough to get.
Given that OSU can get by SC. Anything is possible this year. And, who would predicted Arizona can be 4-1, but, they are on the roll, maybe even 5-1 after this week at Stanford. And, May even rank in the 20’s higher than Cal, could become a showdown of two ranked team next week with CAL.
Any how, the bears must be stronger on offense to be even rank higher, in my opinion.
Go Bears!
October 8th, 2008 at 11:12 am
The rankings are like a ladder. Thr higher you get, the better off you are should you lose a game. But if you lose more than three games, it really doesn’t matter because you probably wont be ranked at all.